Tuesday, 21 February 2017

A Clapham Wood Mystery: Jack Upperton’s Gibbet

I was extremely privileged
that my friend@Nova_Hycgan shared a paranormal experience with me and has
kindly given permission to recount it here…

“This experience happened about 10
years ago. For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by all things
fortean. As I got older that became mainly an obsession with Ghosts, UFOs and
the Occult.

Not far from where I grew up there
is a place called Clapham with the originally titled Clapham Wood next to it.
It’s about half way between Chichester and Brighton near Arundel. During the 1970’s
it started to get a reputation for UFO’s and there were a number of
disappearances that became linked to Black Magic by a chap called Charles
Walker who claimed to have been contacted and warned by a member of a dark
coven that operated in the woods. Now I don’t mean fluffy-bunny Wiccans here or
even Church of Satan types (who tend to be quite enlightened and moral) but
more amoral ceremonial Magick.

The whole Clapham thing is another
story really but during the late 1980’s teenage me became aware of it, and
Charles, as it started getting news coverage again due to the whole satanic
panic thing that was gripping the nation at the time and was also featured in
several books from the time. I was hooked!!!

With the rise of the Internet I
finally began conversing with Charles and his little band of investigators and
eventually started accompanying them looking for evidence of Black Magic/ghosts
etc around Sussex, which finally leads us to 2007 and the tale I wish to tell.

One of Charles’ band is a guy called
Paul Figg and one evening I get an excited call from him saying I’ve got to
come out with them to a place called Jack Upperton’s Gibbet because they’ve
been getting all kinds of stuff happening including... YES/NO answers coming
through his *EMF meter when asking questions of the supposed spirit they were
communicating with. They had established contact through a Ouija board and said
spirit was called Evelyn. The area is approx 4 miles away from Clapham Woods by the entrance to the Angmering park estate.

The following Friday night, I meet
up with the guys and we head off into the night for our gibbet vigil. I don’t
recall the time of year but my memory is it was autumn time, not too cold but
dark nights. After poking around for a while someone says that the temperature
is going up. Sure enough I can feel a definite warmth coming off the ground and
going up my legs. Paul had already told me about this because when ‘Evelyn’
came through previously on the Ouija board and on the EMF this had happened.

I
found this interesting because it kind of flew in the face of the received
wisdom that places get colder when a presence manifests. It also lends me too
think my autumn memory is correct because of latent warmth in the ground from
the day could account for the temperature changes, or of course just
suggestion.

At this point Charles begins
speaking with Evelyn and sure enough after a couple of questions his EMF starts
beeping. I can’t recall whether it was two beeps YES, one beep NO or vice versa
but that’s beside the point I guess because they are asking Ouija style
questions and getting what appeared to be intelligent responses. Now, while
this is happening I am stood next to Charles and my EMF meter is doing
absolutely nothing. Zip. I’m like two feet away from him and his is going off
and mine isn’t. Straight away I’m thinking this shouldn’t be happening. If his
is registering so should mine but nothing. This is where things get stranger
again…

Charles asks Evelyn why it’s not
communicating through my EMF, is it because I wasn’t here the times before? YES
beep. He explains that I’m not a threat, I’m one of them. The second he
explains this, my EMF meter comes to life and the two are going in unison. I’m
dumbfounded. We even got Evelyn to communicate through one but not the other on
demand. This went on for some time and then eventually it died off.

To this day I haven’t got an answer
for what happened that night it has always been my biggest paranormal question
mark. I’ve had experiences before but not ones that I couldn’t explain in some
other way. I appreciate that this is only an anecdote and you only have my word
for it, so not very scientific but there is a little twist. On Ian Topham’s
@mystbritain Mysterious Britain and Irelandwebsite there is a large piece written by Paul about the gibbet: Mysterious Britain In it Paul mentions this...

‘Early visits gave us photos of orbs
suggesting a strong spiritual presence. We decide to hold more extensive
investigations. We bring out an EMF meter. With a mild medium present we get
the feeling of a spirit presence, we then get a strong zap on the EMF which
goes off the scale. Charles then decides to ask the spirit questions, this is
successful we are communicating with a spirit at Upperton’s Gibbet on a YES/NO
answer basis. This we managed to capture on camcorder. A few weeks later we
return with another member of OAP. Again we contact the same spirit using 2 EMF
meters and both going off at different intervals to YES/NO questions’

What he’s referring to here is the
time when I went along. Now, I don’t recall a video camera being present when I
was with them but he does state that they got the first communication on video!
I’ve been out of contact with them since due to the birth of my first daughter.
I stopped going on investigations after I had kids. I think I should start
getting back out there”

What do you think? Was Evelyn trying
to communicate via the EMF readers?

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About Me

Hi, I’m Claire and I kind of look like a witch. Imagine the lovechild of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully – a sceptic who wants to believe.
My fascination with the paranormal started young, listening to my Mother’s ghost stories. I spent most of my childhood desperately wanting to see a ghost. I didn’t.
Studying psychology has made me a sceptic but I still go ghost hunting. I’m now researching paranormal belief and Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) for my MSc at Manchester Metropolitan University. I am a member of the British Psychological Society, Society of Psychical Research and founding member of the MMU Parapsychology Society.
Join me on this blog for a variety of supernatural treats – ghost hunting experiences, spooky locations, (para)psychology and everything in between...
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